Scoot to suspend flights to Male, Lucknow, Kalibo and Quanzhou

An aircraft of Scoot, the Singaporean low-cost airline owned by Singapore Airlines. PHOTO/SCOOT

07 May 2019, MVT 12:49

Singaporean budget airline Scoot announced it is suspending flights to Male’, in addition to three other destinations, beginning October.

According to the airline’s official statement, the discontinuation of flights is owing to a ““combination of weak demand and a shortage of aircraft resources”.

The other three destinations, in addition to Maldives, are Lucknow in northern India, Kalibo in Philippines (the main airport connecting to popular resort island Boracay) and Quanzhou in China's Fujian province.

Further, Scoot attributed the company’s aircraft shortage to no longer being the recipient of SilkAir’s Boeing 737-800NG aircraft following the grounding of SilkAir’s Boeing 737 MAX 8 fleet.

While flights will continue towards the end of the year for Male’, suspensions are to start earlier elsewhere, specifically from end-June for Lucknow and Kalibo and August for Quanzhou.

To compensate for customers that may have purchased tickets or made bookings post-suspension date, the company offered to move the bookings ahead or redeem ticket prices in full either via their original mode of payment or in the form of a Scoot Travel Voucher.